[Python-Dev] Python 3 as a Default in Linux Distros

[Stefan Behnel]

Gustavo Carneiro, 24.07.2013 19:16:
> On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 6:04 PM, Terry Reedy wrote:
>> On 7/24/2013 5:12 AM, Bohuslav Kabrda wrote:
>>> Hi all, in recent days, there has been a discussion on fedora-devel
>>> (see thread [1]) about moving to Python 3 as a default.
>>
>> Not being a current *nix user, I have no opinion on the specific
>> alternatives. However, I am concerned about newcomers being mis-served by
>> being mislead into thinking that 'Python' is python 2 rather python 3. We
>> see this in some newbie posts on Python list. (This is especially a concern
>> when default Python is still, say, 2.5.)  I have no idea, though, how to
>> avoid breaking scripts while directing newcomers in the proper direction.
> 
> Maybe we could make interactive python2 scripts print a big warning
> advising users to use python 3 instead of 2, if possible?

Well, what I think could be done is to have the Py2 interpreter output a
warning if an unpostfixed shebang is found in an executed script. That
would eventually push users into either using the explicit "/usr/bin/env
python2", or port to Py3 straight away (or both).

Stefan